Overview of the application of eye tracking glasses to asses the layout of store layout

1. Anna Basista
UX Consultant
User Vision
Anna Basista
UX Consultant
Eye tracking glasses
help define shop layout and
record visitors’ experience

2. Plan for today
 User research dilemma
 What is eye tracking?
 Physical experiences mapping
 Case Study “Visit Scotland Tourist Information
Centre”
– Problem
– Solution
– Outcome
 Key learning's from using the eye tracking glasses

3. “User research is the process of figuring
out how people interpret and use products
and services.”
- Mike Kuniavsky

4. “Value-centred design starts a story about
an ideal interaction between an individual
and an organisation and the benefits each
realises from the interaction.”
- Jess McMullin (Boxes and Arrows)

5. “People lie because they don’t remember
clear what they saw. People lie because
they can’t help making a good story better
than it was the way it happened.”
- Carl Sandburg

6. What is eye tracking?
 Measurement of eye activity
 Where and how people look
 What is and what isn’t seen
 What is the pattern for a group
of users

7. “Conventional” eye tracking

8. Mobile eye tracking

9. Eye tracking glasses
 Capture user behaviour and eye
gaze in real environments
 Where and how people look
 Analysis of real world user
journeys
 Better understanding of what is
happening when someone is
experiencing it

10. Eye tracking with markers
 Automatic quantitative
analysis (AOI’s)
 Markers communicate with
sensor located in the glasses
 Data from multiple
participants can be aggregated
and overlaid on a still image

11. Method
• Photo of shane here.
Physical experience
mapping

12. The Client

13. How successful visitors are in
achieving goals of their visit?
What prevents visitors from
finding everything they want?
- Signage effectiveness
- Leaflets, Ads & Retail
engagement
- Information Centre footfall

14. • Explain a little bit a about us recruiting people at the door
• Explain calibration procedure
• True intent
• Glasses
“What is the goal of your
visit to the Information
Centre today?”

15. Goals
“Browse for leaflets
and inspiration”.
“Find information
about trips,
places,
entertainment...”
“Find out
what is worth
seeing in
Edinburgh”.
“Get maps.”

16. Walk around the Information Centre

17. Souvenirs shopping

18. Booking a trip

19. Waiting in the queue

20. Analysis

21. Footfall heatmap

22. Leaflets

23. Looking for leaflets

24. Leaflets

26. Leaflets rack

27. Average time to first fixation (seconds)
Time to first fixation

28. Average total visit duration (seconds)
Total visit duration

29. Ads
Retail Signage
Ads

30. Ads
Retail Signage
Ads
Seen 1.5% of
the visit time
10% of the
visit time
Looked at 6
times in total

31. How did Visit Scotland change
the Information Centre?

37. Using eye tracking glasses in the field
 Very easy to set up and start using
 Users feel comfortable using them
 Permission is needed – the glasses
are not that discreet
 The battery in the recording
device can drain quickly

38. Using eye tracking glasses in the field
 Crucial for calibration purposes
 Allow you to mark out AOI’s
 Required for aggregated
gaze trails and heatmaps
 Speed up the analysis process
 May not be feasible to set-up
 You may need a lot of blue tack!

39. Using eye tracking glasses
 Manual analysis can be time
consuming, but it is worthwhile
with well defined objectives
 Automatic analysis is really great!
 Recordings of the user journeys
are loved by the clients
 AOI’s analysis in videos available
without markers

40. How comfortable was it for you the wear
eye-tracking glasses?
Very
comfortable
Quite
comfortable
Didn’t really
notice/can’t
say
Quite
uncomfortable
Very
uncomfortable

41. How concerned did you feel about
wearing “these” glasses in public?
Not at all
concerned
Hardly noticed Somewhat Quite a bit
Very much
concerned

42. • In this Lightning Talk we would like to talk about novel techniques we employed in this project
but also we are eager to share our experiences with using eye tracking glasses in the field
research. Our client wanted to better understand the needs of visitors and how effective the
layout of Tourist Information Centre is in answering those needs. Eye tracking was employed to
help understand how visitors to Information Centre engage with it, which sections of the
literature and merchandise shelving were looked at the most and whether the signage in the
centre was noticed. 15 visitors to the centre were recruited to take part in the study, all
intercepted as they entered the centre. We asked them to wear eye-tracking glasses and to use
the centre to accomplish the goals of their visit. The ability to record these user journeys without
constantly observing test participants was especially effective as it helped to make the whole
testing session feel more realistic and avoided disturbing participants in any way. Data gathered
from eye tracking glasses was imported into dedicated software package and analysed.
Automatic analysis was performed on the demarked shelving. Manual coding analysis was also
performed, focusing specifically on the amount of time participants spent looking at signage,
advertising posters and retail shelves. The amount of and duration of these gazes were calculated
in relation to total participants’ visit time. Based on the visitors’ journey recordings gathered with
eye tracking glasses a ‘footfall heat map’ was created. Each time a person went to the particular
area of the centre this occurrence was recorded and later mapped out in a form of a ‘heat map’
based on the frequency of visits. This helped our client understand where visitors go throughout
their visit and which of the Information Centre’s areas receive more or less footfall. Findings
allowed the client to both take remedial action in areas where the experience was not as
effective as it could be, and to take advantage of the insight to maximise the revenue potential of
various areas of the centre.
Anna Basista
User Experience Consultant
User Vision
55 North Castle Street
Edinburgh
EH2 3QA
Email: anna@uservision.co.uk
Web: www.uservision.co.uk

43. Credits/references:
• http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1361797
• http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1386554
• http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1161062
• http://www.tobii.com/
• http://makezine.com/2006/03/07/camera-records-eye-intere/